Irish coach John Mckinstry has reacted to his dismissal from the Rwanda national team job terming the decision an unfair one.
McKinstry took over the Amavubi job from Stephen Constantine in March 2015 and later extended to 2018 early this year in May. He has taken charge of 25 matches and won twelve of them.
His last match was a 3-2 loss at home against Mozambique, a result which rules the country (mathematically) out of the 2017 Gabon finals.
Mckinstry’s fate was passed on Wednesday by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Sports and Culture Col Patrice Rugambwa.
He later penned an emotional reply on his official portal claiming injustice.
The message in full.
Leading Rwanda to their best ever tournament performance – the last eight of the CAF Nations Championship 2016 – is naturally the stand out moment; but also that our CAF Nations Cup and CECAFA Challenge Cup performances have each only been bettered once before by any Rwandan team in history.
Being named ’Coach of the Tournament’ following our CECAFA Challenge Cup 2015 performance also underlined the good progress the team were making through our work together.
Despite the successes, some point to a fall in the FIFA ranking. However, it was agreed when I arrived that we would target match wins in CHAN, and improvements for the long term… We not only delivered our best ever performance in CHAN, but also matched or exceeded almost all past performances in CECAFA and AFCON.
The specific reasons behind the decision have not been made fully clear to me – so given our performance to date I am therefore both surprised and disappointed by the announcement today, and that myself and the team will not be able to finish what we started. Had we been able to do so this young team, assembled since the decision to dispense with the use of foreign naturalised players just prior to my appointment, would certainly go on to achieve even greater success than it has already done.
Given what I and this team have achieved in just 17 months, I know that history will look back upon this period of time as one of the most progressive and successful in Rwandan football.
I wish to thank the players, support staff, wider colleagues and all the Rwandans whom I had great pleasure to meet with. Overall, my time as Head Coach of Rwanda is one that I will always look back on with fondness and pride